Damon did not have a solid plan, but he knew that he had to act right at the moment. Otherwise, everything he had worked for until now would become a complete waste. Thanks to the drop of the ancestor's blood, he had a connection with the whole settlement, even if he was in another place. The moment he sensed the impending attack, he instantly activated the teleportation token and reappeared back in the castle.

But he did not have much time. The barrier was breaking down. Everything was going to get annihilated in a fraction of a second. He had no time to hesitate. No time to plan. He also did not have any confidence in fighting back against a B rank.

Moreover, everything was chaotic within him right this second. Countless thoughts, ideas, pieces of information, glimpses of history, nuggets of knowledge, and fragments of ancient memories were surging through his mind all at once.

The blood essence he had absorbed from massacring a huge portion of two vampire settlements was also surging inside him violently like a raging sea. Every drop of it was being refined by his bloodline, and the drop of the ancestor's blood served as a catalyst, further amplifying all the gains. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

It was an indescribable feeling. Everything was becoming clearer and clearer. A path forward was opening up. But he was not able to fully commit to this state yet. He couldn't exactly isolate himself and enter a meditative state.

Even if he wanted to and was able to, he wouldn't be able to do it. His entire body had turned into a furnace. The power flooding through his veins was so overwhelming that even breathing felt difficult. If he did not release it somehow, his body might explode before the attack from above even reached the barrier.

Chaos and enlightenment were colliding inside his mind.

The raging storm of blood essence threatening to tear his body apart was the same force opening new doors of understanding. Ancient memories from the ancestor's blood flickered like lightning across his consciousness, each fragment revealing a piece of a complex puzzle he had yet to comprehend fully.

Damon gritted his teeth and acted out of pure instinct. The difficulty of the world was off the charts and he had already gotten whatever juice he could get. Now it was the go time. His success or failure here would depend on the next couple of seconds.

Damon sucked in a big breath and let out everything that was raging within him. If the power inside him needed an outlet… then he would give it one. He gathered all of the insights, experience and ideas he had accumulated so far and used everything he comprehended to create something simple, a blood barrier to block the incoming attack.

However, that simple attack possessed an unfathomable depth. It contained concepts Damon was only just now beginning to unlock, concepts that would have normally taken him decades perhaps even centuries to understand but thanks to gluttonously sucking in the blood essence from the other vampires and the drop of ancestor's blood, everything was forced open for him.

The simple barrier contained a power far beyond what mana could muster.

Damon flashed his eyes open. He could finally see it. He finally knew what it was that was needed to step onto the next stage, to truly walk a path towards immortality.

The Dao of Blood

He finally managed to grasp the Great Dao of Blood, even if it was only by its edges. The moment the realization appeared in his mind, everything changed. The raging storm inside his body no longer felt chaotic. The countless fragments of knowledge, instincts, and memories that had been colliding violently suddenly aligned like stars falling into orbit.

The barrier he created stopped trembling. The chaotic mass of blood essence condensed instantly, becoming something far more refined. What had looked like a desperate shield now resembled a unyielding barrier stretching across the sky.

The annihilation spear slammed into it.

BOOOOM!

The sky shook violently, but the barrier did not crack and it was not over just yet. Apart from the insights he received from the drop of the ancestor's blood, he added his own insights. The combination was even more deadly and something truly unexpected happened.

The barrier no longer simply blocked the attack. It now started devouring the spear!

Right at this moment, Damon felt an inexplicable urge to close his eyes and meditate. The barrier was holding strong for now so he went for it. He had a feeling that this was going to be life-changing and did not hesitate.

He closed his eyes and focused as blood energy swirled around him forming a cocoon. Crimson currents spiraled faster and faster, wrapping around him. The air around him trembled as the storm of blood essence condensed inward, no longer chaotic but flowing with a strange and perfect rhythm.

Outside, the six B-rank vampires stared in shock.

"He is forming a Dao core."

"At a moment like this?"

For anyone walking the path toward immortality, the Dao Core was the true beginning. It was not merely power. It was the crystallization of comprehension. The moment one condensed a Dao Core, their path became real. Not everyone was able to do something like this. Especially the wastrel heir. That too, he dared to form a Dao core right in the middle of a battle?

Inside the castle, the nobles watched in stunned silence. All the other vampires stood frozen. Everyone had thought that their clan was done for when their clan leader and a group of clan elders mysteriously died. There was simply no other B ranks in their clan. No one was even close to becoming one.

But now the wastrel son was going to become a B rank powerhouse? Now what was going to happen to their clan? Were they going to be annhilated or saved?

Just when some sort of hope was blooming, another strange phenomenon started. Space began to distort here and there. All of a sudden the whole world began to fracture.

Everyone including the B ranks gasped as they witnessed strange golden strands appear from these spatial disturbances. More shockingly, every single one of the golden strands flew directly to the single person who was at the center of everything.

Just like that, the whole world froze. More and more spatial distortions began to appear. Next even the vampires began to disappear one after the other. The whole world started collapsing and golden strands started pouring out from every nook and corner of the collapsing world.

Every single strand rushed toward one place, toward Damon.

Inside the cocoon of blood energy, Damon remained motionless. But the golden strands ignored the blood vortex entirely. They pierced straight through it and entered his body. They went straight to the depths of his body where his primordial mana core resided.

Slowly, they wrapped around the core one by one, weaving themselves into a delicate lattice of golden threads. The raging sea of blood essence that had been threatening to tear Damon apart suddenly found a center. The currents bent toward the forming core like rivers flowing toward the heart of a vast ocean.

Inside the cocoon, Damon's breathing slowed. His consciousness sank deeper into the strange realm of comprehension where the Dao of Blood unfolded before him.

***

Chapter 3 Mass Release Sponsored by Syphatrol